Van Gogh, The Life: A Book Review

Splendor in the Stars

“Self-Portrait With Straw Hat” from “Van Gogh: The Life” (August/September 1887).

Letter sketches of churches at Petersham and Turnham Green from "Van Gogh: The Life" (November 1876).

By DEBORAH SOLOMON

Published: November 25, 2011

Vincent VAN GOGH tends to be remembered as an art saint whose radiant paintings of sunflowers and starry skies seem somehow imbued with moral valor. He identified with the poor and marginalized, and looked upon art as a humanitarian calling. He died unknown, at age 37, and you suspect he will always be a shining hero not only to people who worship art but to those who feel their own talents remain insufficiently acknowledged by their peers — meaning, most everyone.

On the other hand, is it possible that we have him entirely wrong, that he was just a creep and selfish user who felt that a life in art basically meant never having to say “Thank you”? Such is the portrait that emerges from Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith’s energetic, hulking and negatively skewed “Van Gogh: The Life.” The artist, as they see him, was bitter and manipulative, more of a perpetrator than a victim. The eldest child of a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, he grew up in a rural corner of Holland and was not exactly an easy son. For part of his adulthood, we are told, in “a campaign that seemed intended to mortify and embarrass his parents,” he moved into their parsonage in Nuenen and shocked the congregation by swearing, smoking a pipe, drinking ­Cognac from a flask, dismissing the locals as “clodhoppers” and loudly proclaiming his atheism. . .



[Book by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, Illustrated, 953 pp. Random House $40.] To read more, see below. This link does not work normally, so it's necessary to copy it and then paste it into your browser line then enter. Reminder Ctrl+C to COPY then Ctrl+V to PASTE.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/books/review/van-gogh-the-life-by-steven-naifeh-and-gregory-white-smith-book-review.html?scp=1&sq=Van Gogh The Life&st=cse

The Wonder, Mystery of Keith--friend of John Muir, co-founder of the Sierra Club

Stinson Beach, oil on board, late 1870s or early 1880s

In 1908, Brother Fidelis Cornelius Braeg, a Swiss-born art professor and mountain climber who later joined the faculty at St. Mary's College in Moraga, called on John Muir at the great naturalist's Martinez home. That's where he first saw the majestic Sierra panoramas and pastoral Bay Area landscapes of Muir's close friend William Keith, the celebrated California painter whose spiritually imbued pictures thrilled him.

"I found them nearest to expressing the quality, mystery and wonder of any paintings I had ever scene," wrote Brother Cornelius, who began collecting the paintings that form the core of St. Mary's peerless Keith collection, and would write the definitive biography of the prolific Scottish-born artist who helped found the Sierra Club.

More than 80 of the paintings Brother Cornelius acquired are on view in "The Comprehensive Keith: A Centennial Tribute," a rich retrospective at the recently expanded St. Mary's College Museum of Art, formerly called the Hearst Art Gallery. It features 106 paintings by the masterly colorist whose precisely rendered landscapes of the late 1860s and '70s - which were encouraged by Muir and influenced by the dramatic Hudson River School painter Albert Bierstadt - gave way to moodier, subjective and more abstract images that reflect Keith's love of French Barbizon painting and his embrace of the spiritual teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg.

"Keith came to the conclusion that no artist could ever re-create what a Supreme Being had made, so the artist should try to suggest how nature made him or her feel," says Heidi Donner, St. Mary's resident Keith expert. The museum's education and publicity manager, she organized this show, which was designed and installed by museum Director Carrie Brewster.

Over the years, Keith's poetic landscapes - many painted in his San Francisco studio from sketches he made in the Sierra, around the Bay Area, in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska - have been displayed in small thematic shows in the Keith Room of the Spanish-style gallery, which was built in 1977 with funding from the Hearst Foundation. The current retrospective

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/09/DD711LQRPV.DTL#ixzz1dQ7WGnt6

Some History Museums Face Problems

Lake George, N.Y. -- Robert Flacke Sr. can remember the days when Fort William Henry's multimedia exhibit consisted of two Kodak carousel-style color slide projectors that kept breaking down.

The history-heavy tourist attraction on the southern end of Lake George upgraded years ago to a video display, an improvement that looks positively futuristic amid all the aging, dusty exhibits sprinkled throughout the privately owned reconstructed French and Indian War fort and museum. Many of the displays look like they haven't changed since the place was built more than a half century ago.

In an effort to boost numbers of visitors, museum and historical sites around the country are searching for new ways to update old exhibits amid a time of economic uncertainty and declining support for museums in general and history museums in particular.

"History is tough to sell," said Flacke, president of the Fort William Henry Corp.

Updating exhibits often is one way to attract more visitors, but it's expensive, especially for smaller museums and lesser-known historic sites.

"A lot of smaller institutions are getting off the treadmill of trying to change things every few months," said Anne Ackerson, director of the Museum Association of New York. "This history museum world is kind of scratching its head, trying to find out how to make themselves relevant, bring in audiences and engage those audiences on resources that they simply don't have."

History hit hard

The problem is particularly felt by history-related museums, which make up about 40 percent of the nation's 17,500 museums of all genres. Some 850 million visits are made to American museums each year, part of the $192 billion spent annually on cultural tourism in the United States. Even with all those visitors and all that money being spent, many history museums are struggling.

"It's tough for all museums everywhere," said Ford Bell, president of the American Association of Museums, which represents nearly 3,000 nationwide. The Washington, D.C., association's annual survey of a cross-section of museums found that more than 70 percent were experiencing some type of economic distress, he said.

To keep costs down, many museums are holding off on renting traveling exhibits and instead delving into their own collections to present new displays, Ackerson said. Others are looking at innovative ways to boost funding and give their museums a fresh look.

The Wright Museum ties black history to other cultural events, including recent performances by the Dance Theatre of Harlem, subject of a featured exhibit and the highlight of a September gala that raised more than $400,000 for the museum, spokesman Ted Canaday said.

"You can't just say, 'We're a history museum' and only push the historic aspect," he said. "You have to show people how the history impacts people right now, how it impacts the choices they make, and one of the best ways to do that is through the arts."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/08/DDV81LRALT.DTL#ixzz1dLIqsfLh

Who Are These Personalities? Test Yourself.

Here are some noteworthy persons. Can you name them? Answers listed below.

1. Georgia Okeeffe
2. Frida Kahlo
3. Gustav Mahler
4. Toulouse Lautrec
5. Samuel Beckett
6. Gertrude Stein
7. T. S. Eliot
8. Amelia Earhart
9. Marie Curie
10. Frido Kahlo
11. Isaac Newton
12. Annie Leibovitz
13. Louis Pasteur
14. Georgia Okeeffe
15. Camille Paglia
16. Rosa Bonheur
17. Barbara Hepworth
18. Susan Sontag

Cinema This Fall

Holiday Movies

It’s Gods vs. Mortals, and It Isn’t Pretty

In one scene, the Gods look down at the Earth from Olympus.

The film, one of a bevy of pictures with the memorable release date 11-11-11, is the latest from Tarsem Singh, the director behind the psychological thriller “The Cell” (2000) and the stylized adventure fantasy “The Fall” (2006).

“Immortals” tells the story of Hyperion (Mickey Rourke), an evil king who wreaks havoc throughout Greece in his search for the Epirus Bow, a weapon that would help him defeat the gods of Olympus and reign over humankind. He is challenged by Theseus (Henry Cavill), a stonemason who leads a small group of warriors in an uprising.

Two of the producers, Mark Canton and Gianni Nunnari, served the same role on “300” (directed by Zack Snyder), the historical action yarn with which “Immortals” is most likely to draw comparisons. While they are certainly hoping to mirror the box-office success of “300” ($456 million worldwide), they sought to give “Immortals” a look distinct from that film by bringing in Mr. Singh.

He has used contemporary style to pay homage to bygone eras before, whether for music videos (R.E.M.) or commercials (Pepsi). This time Mr. Singh channeled the fine arts for “Immortals.”

“Everyone is making comic strips, basically,” Mr. Singh said, referring to the style of many large-budget action films. “I was wondering what it would look like if I took ideas from paintings instead. I thought if I looked at Renaissance paintings, I could use that as the inspiration as opposed to a comic strip.” He pointed to the work of Caravaggio as a particular inspiration. That artist’s use of individuals arranged in tableau inspired some of the battle scenes.

Similarly, with the film’s landscape shots, including an image of the gods looking down from Olympus, Mr. Singh wanted to reinterpret historical artworks and make them the basis for the backgrounds. This led to a look that was more hyper-real than photorealistic. To read more: (Ctrl+C to copy, Ctrl+V to paste)
[Parental Advisory: Film contains lots of violence, gore and blood.]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/movies/heads-are-exploding-in-tarsem-singhs-immortals.html?scp=1&sq=Immortals&st=cse